Friday, February 08, 2013

From the "you can't make this stuff up" files

by digby

I'm heading to Germany for a tropical vacation:

Gretchen Carlson: "The industry's future looks dim. The United States simply hasn't figured out how to do solar cheaply and effectively. You look at the country of Germany, it's working out great for them... What was Germany doing correct? Are they just a smaller country, and that made it more feasible?"

Fox Business "reporter" Shibani Joshi: "They're a smaller country, and they've got lots of sun. Right? They've got a lot more sun than we do. The problem is it's a cloudy day and it's raining, you're not gonna have it." Sure, California might get sun now and then "but here on the East Coast, it's just not going to work."

The U.S. is lagging behind Germany in solar power generation, but it doesn't have anything to do with our solar potential. In fact, the Southwest has "among the best photovoltaic resources in the world," according to a report by GTM Research. And even the East Coast states have greater solar potential than Germany, as illustrated by this map from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory:

Unlike the U.S., Germany has a national solar policy, a quick, inexpensive permitting process, and a national mandate that utilities sign up rooftop installations under what's known as a feed-in tariff--essentially a long-term contract whereby the utilities agree not just to allow the solar on their grids but also to buy the excess power from consumers.

Here in the US we prefer to concentrate all our focus on fracking. Its potentially lethal consequences give us that big thrill we love. That's what makes us so darned exceptional.